The Minnesota Vikings will face the Detroit Lions in Week 18. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Vikings and Lions skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 18 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Detroit Lions Week 18 Start-Sit Advice
Jared Goff, QB
Jared Goff stands alone at the top of the NFL in terms of games with at least three touchdown passes and zero interceptions (six; Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are the only others with more than three). He’d be sitting as the MVP favorite in many seasons, and while he isn’t this year due to Jackson and Josh Allen’s excellence, he is having that sort of elite season.
Goff was phenomenal in the Week 7 game in Minnesota, completing 22 of 25 passes for 280 yards and two scores, numbers that should be surprising given that he ranks inside the top five in both passer rating and yards per attempt against the blitz this season.
Given this offense’s efficiency and the increased reliance on Goff to make plays sans David Montgomery, Detroit’s QB1 is a pretty good bet most weeks, and I especially like him in this specific matchup against an aggressive defense that can be beaten with quick decisions.
Jahmyr Gibbs, RB
Jahmyr Gibbs is now one touchdown away from tying the franchise record for total TDs in a season (Jamaal Williams and Barry Sanders currently hold the mark with 17). Gibbs’ 30-yard score on Monday night was just a snapshot of what he can do — the vision, the cut, the speed.
With David Montgomery out, we are at least getting the pleasure of seeing what an unleashed version of Gibbs looks like — and it looks like maybe the best RB in the sport.
Gibbs had no trouble punishing this Minnesota defense in Week 7 (160 yards and two touchdowns), a game in which Montgomery was fully healthy. Detroit needs to play defense with its offense these days, and while Gibbs isn’t a traditional grinding back, the shortcomings of the Lions’ defense make touch counts like what we saw last week (22) the norm more than the exception.
Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR
It’s easy to forget that Amon-Ra St. Brown opened this season with consecutive scoreless efforts as it feels like he scores every week.
He has 12 in 14 games since that start to the season, and his route-running precision makes him a near-impossible guard in this creative system that positions him away from bulk defenders. Even with Jameson Williams emerging and Sam LaPorta getting his groove back, St. Brown is St. Brown-ing (36 targets over the past three weeks with a touchdown in all three contests).
The blitz-happy Vikings might actually project well for the role that St. Brown fills. We saw it in Week 7 (32% target share, 25.2 PPR points), and if Minnesota is going to throw exotic mixes at Jared Goff, he’s just more likely to hone in on his star receiver who always appears to be open.
The Packers had success through the air when they finally got aggressive against the Vikings last week, and Dan Campbell has this unit, this team, this city on full-go aggression mode 24/7.
St. Brown could be the top point scorer of the week and deserves to be one of the first players off of draft boards next season.
Tim Patrick, WR
The idea of Tim Patrick made sense early in December when he saw 7+ targets in consecutive games for maybe the NFL’s best offense, but those days are pretty clearly behind us.
With Jameson Williams functioning as a full-time threat, Sam LaPorta rediscovering his form, and Jahmyr Gibbs’ usage ramping up after David Montgomery’s injury, there just isn’t any meat left on the bone for Patrick.
Like, literally, no meat. Patrick has been held without a catch on 45 routes over the past two weeks and can safely be overlooked in all spots, even in the more impactful Week 18 game that most are looking for ways to get exposure to.
Jameson Williams, WR
It was a bumpy ride with inconsistencies and suspensions, but we seem to have arrived at a spot where Jameson Williams is deserving of lineup lock status, a label I expect him to very much carry over into 2025.
It’s amazing to look at Williams and Xavier Worthy side by side. Both are blessed with elite speed, but both have landed in creative offenses that are equally trying to get a feel for how to best use them. Much like Worthy, Williams has been getting his number called in exotic ways – he was on the scoring end of a hook-and-ladder on Monday night in a game that also saw him cash in a speed running play inside the 5-yard line.
Detroit knows what they have in Amon-Ra St. Brown and are now excelling at playing off of him. Williams has seen at least seven targets in five of his past six games, so even if the deep targets worry you, the sheer number of chances to connect is comforting.
This matchup suppresses some of my excitement, as the Vikes are a top-five defense against deep passes in terms of yards per completion and interception rate, but that’s not enough to knock him out of WR2 status.
Sam LaPorta, TE
Sam LaPorta’s spot on the field was never in question. With his target rate trending toward the strong numbers he put up as a rookie, there should be no hesitation in playing him in the most impactful game of Week 18.
In fact, the first meeting with the Vikings has proven to be symbolic of a turning point. In that Week 7 clash, LaPorta hauled in just one pass on an 8% target share. He was heavily involved the following week in a one-sided win over the Titans (6-48-1) and has sustained nice growth from his slow start to the season.
LaPorta may not be the best pass catcher on this offense, but his role holds value and given the injuries on the defensive end, this offense needs to be clicking on all cylinders to earn the NFC’s top seed.
Minnesota Vikings Week 18 Start-Sit Advice
Sam Darnold, QB
I didn’t think we’d be at this point where I’d have Sam Darnold ranked as a top-five quarterback, but here we are.
This season, he has 12 games with multiple touchdown passes, a number that only Joe Burrow (13) has topped. He’s been consistently remarkable, and he’s not just riding the coattails of Justin Jefferson — Jordan Addison is trending in the right direction and Jalen Nailor has seven TDs this season (six more than he previously had on his NFL résumé before 2024).
Darnold completed 81.5% of his passes in Week 7 against a healthy version of this Lions defense, something that is far from the case right now. He’s been a top 10 signal caller in five of his past seven games, and I would genuinely be surprised if he didn’t add to that total in the final game of the 2024 regular season.
Aaron Jones, RB
Week 18 Status: PLAYING
Aaron Jones suffered a quad injury last week, and while he is still expected to suit up, it’s a situation that at least deserves your a
ttention. If you want to fully protect yourself against a late scratch, Cam Akers is the handcuff, though I’d be tempted to think that, in this event, the Vikings heap more responsibilities onto Sam Darnold than asking Akers to do his best Jones impression.
Jones has multiple receptions in six straight and has seen at least four passes thrown his way in four of those games. His versatility is being used by Kevin O’Connell, and we love to see it, especially when the splash plays on the ground have disappeared (five straight games without a rush gaining more than 15 yards).
I’d be awfully surprised if we got the 17-touch, 116-yard, one-touchdown showing that we got from Jones against the Lions back in Week 7 again, but 15-ish touches with the potential for a nice receiving game very much makes for a logical projection this week so long as he can avoid a setback.
I like Detroit to win (and cover) this game, something that hurts Jones’ projection a bit but doesn’t knock him outside of my RB2 tier.
Jordan Addison, WR
Jordan Addison ranks sixth among receivers with at least 75 targets this season in production over expectation (+28.9%, just ahead of Ladd McConkey and Ja’Marr Chase). He looks like the real deal after a rookie year that I was willing to write off as Christian Watson-y because of the unsustainably high scoring rate.
In Week 7’s matchup with Detroit, Addison only caught three passes (66 yards), but Josh Nailor added 76 yards, and I think it’s safe to say that Addison is a good bet to absorb some of that usage.
The Lions are a top-10 deep ball defense in terms of both completion percentage and touchdown rate, making this a bit of a boom/bust matchup. We’ve seen what the valleys look like from Addison (six games under 45 receiving yards), and that drags him down to an average WR2 ranking for me this week, but the upside that comes with 12 red-zone touches over his past six games is tough to sit on in a week like this.
Addison can become the fourth player since 1985 to open his career with a pair of double-digit TD reception seasons (Odell Beckham Jr., Rob Gronkowski, and Randy Moss).
Justin Jefferson, WR
The best receiver in the game in the biggest game of the week – do I really need to sell you here?
Justin Jefferson earned a 30.8% target share when these teams first met (Week 7), and with injuries ravaging this Detroit defense, I’m not sure they have the manpower to defend Minnesota’s alpha WR.
Last week, the Packers did everything in their power to take away Jefferson – he earned 11 targets anyway and nearly decided the game with one of the better catches in the middle of the field that you’ll see, a highlight that was called back by penalty.
In football, as we know it today, I’m not sure you can guard greatness in the receiver position. The development of Jordan Addison adds just another wrinkle to this offense that Detroit might have problems with – this is going to be such a fun game, and you are lucky to have the fate of your matchup in the hands of a Jefferson hammer.
T.J. Hockenson, TE
If you invested in T.J. Hockenson, now is as good a time as any to roll him out there. Sam Darnold is playing at a high level, and while the production hasn’t jumped off the screen up to this point, six straight games with at least five targets hold value for a player holding this level of upside.
I have him ranked as a top-10 option due to the lack of options in Week 18, but there is no denying that there is risk. After all, Hock has just one end-zone target in his last eight games. The valuable usage in this over-achieving offense is being chewed up by Justin Jefferson, per usual, and a breaking-out Jordan Addison (at least one end-zone target in five of his past seven games and multiple such looks in three of his past five).
Hockenson was inactive for the Week 7 meeting with the Lions and Johnny Mundt earned a 19.2% target share. That role is encouraging. It resulted in just 4.8 PPR points for Mundt, but I’d happily take my chances with a 20-22% share and be on my way.